Phillips

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We look through shadowed trees at a river winding into the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Close to us, a cluster of three thin trees and a larger central tree are deep in shadow, which contrasts with the light-filled scene beyond. The topaz-blue river curves from the lower right corner, across the canvas, and into the distance at the center. A few spindly trees grow along the riverbank in front of a hut with a thatched roof to our right. The bank to our left is lined with reeds and tall grasses. Behind the central shadowed tree, a long, low, narrow boat is occupied by four people with pale skin. To our left, a person with a dark garment and white collar reclines near a seated man wearing yellow and a feathered cap. To our right, another person reclines near the boatman who pushes the boat through the water using a long pole. The harvest yellow and sage green of the riverbanks and vegetation beyond the boats fades to hazy, pale blue mountains along the horizon line, which comes just over halfway up the composition. White clouds float across a blue sky above.
Annibale Carracci, River Landscape, c. 1590, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.58

River Landscape

Annibale Carracci · c. 1590 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.58

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, Man Pulling on His Shoe, 1761/1763?, black chalk on laid paper, laid down on mount, Gift of Benjamin and Lillian Hertzberg, 2004.140.18

Man Pulling on His Shoe

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince · 1761/1763? · black chalk on laid paper, laid down on mount ·  Accession ID  2004.140.18

Christian Rohlfs, Mists over the Lake, 1934, tempera and gouache on wove paper, Gift of Helen Porter and James T. Dyke, 2002.61.1

Mists over the Lake

Christian Rohlfs · 1934 · tempera and gouache on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2002.61.1

We look down and across a river valley into a mountainous landscape in this horizontal painting. Most of the mountains, trees, and buildings in the middle and deep distance are painted in tones of ice and cobalt blue. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting. In the sky, an intense gold glow comes from the left and illuminates the clouds across the picture. A field of flat aquamarine-blue sky shows through the clouds at the top center. The land closest to us is dark brown and green, backlit by the low sunlight. A vertical, rocky outcropping rises almost the height of the painting along the left edge. Trees create fuzzy outlines along the top of the cliff, and two people, wearing red, dark blue, and brown walk along a path about halfway down the outcropping. About a dozen more people and children, along with some horses or mules, walk, stand, or sit along paths leading to and around some coffee-brown buildings at the foot of the outcropping. More people work on and around boats in the arctic-blue river that winds into the distance along the right edge of the composition.
Herman Saftleven, Imaginary River Landscape, 1670, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2016.147.1

Imaginary River Landscape

Herman Saftleven · 1670 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2016.147.1

Francis Towne, A Rocky Shore at Coombmartin, Devon (Combe Martin Bay), 1783, pen and gray-brown ink and wash on laid paper, Gift of Donald Stone, 2001.135.1

A Rocky Shore at Coombmartin, Devon (Combe Martin Bay)

Francis Towne · 1783 · pen and gray-brown ink and wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.135.1

Three men with crowns and wearing gold-trimmed robes stand and kneel before a woman sitting on a wooden, box-like seat holding a baby to our right, in front of a rocky cave and landscape, in this horizontal painting. A balding man with a gray beard and hair, Joseph, and two younger people with blond hair stand around the woman, Mary, to our right, while a group of five young men or boys and three horses gather near the left edge. All the people have pale skin. Mary, the baby Jesus, Joseph, and the three men closest to them all have shimmering gold halos. One balding man with a long white beard kneels and kisses the baby’s feet. He wears a gold and crimson-red brocade-like robe over a burgundy-red garment, and he holds a pointed gold crown in his right hand, which rests on the ground. Behind him and to our left, a younger man with curly blond hair and goatee, wearing a wine-red tunic belted with gold and a gold crown on his head, holds his hands in prayer as he kneels down on one knee. The third stands to our left, cleanshaven with long blond hair. He wears a fur-lined, thigh-length scarlet-red robe and a gold crown, and he holds up a gold vessel in one hand. To our right, Mary wears a lapis-blue robe that covers her head and falls to her feet. The baby is covered only by a white cloth across his hips, and he has short blond hair. He touches the kneeling man’s head with one hand. His body is pudgy but his face has more adult-like, delicate features. Joseph stands at the woman’s far shoulder, wearing a butter-yellow robe over a rose-pink garment. His hands are gathered on a walking stick in front of his chest and his brows are furrowed with deep lines. One of the two younger people behind Mary, to our right, holds a lidded gold vessel. The group of five attendants to our left gather around cream-white, gray, or chestnut-brown horses. These blond people wear garments of dark olive-green, coral-red, royal-blue, or rose-pink tunics over black stockings. The rocky, brown cave behind Mary and Jesus, to our right of center, is occupied by a donkey and an ox behind a wooden trough. The landscape beyond is segmented into quilt-like squares of stylized crops. The horizon line comes almost to the top edge of the panel beneath a narrow strip of vivid, cobalt-blue sky. A gold star like a sunburst with rays of light hovers over the woman and child.
Giovanni di Paolo, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1450, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.13

The Adoration of the Magi

Giovanni di Paolo · c. 1450 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.13

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Towers

Carlos Garaicoa · 2000 · Japanese paper, metal wire, and eight light bulbs ·  Accession ID  2020.116.4

French 17th Century, God the Father, after 1664, oil on canvas, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 1986.62.1

God the Father

French 17th Century · after 1664 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1986.62.1

Two muscular men lean away, whips raised, from a third man tied to a freestanding column, in a courtyard-like space in front of a deep landscape in this vertical painting. At the center of the composition, the pale-skinned man bound to the column, Jesus, stands with his body facing us. He turns his head to our right, perhaps looking at the man to that side. Jesus is cleanshaven, and his long brown hair falls back behind his shoulders. A delicate gold ring creates a halo, with red spokes to the top and sides. Ropes wrap around his upper arms, and he is nude except for a blue cloth around his hips. The column is mottled with tan and pale pink, and is topped with a gold, leafy capital. To each side, the men with the whips have more tan skin than Jesus. They stand in the same pose as each other, with their weight mostly in their right legs, and right hands raised with the whips. But the man to our left stands with his body facing us, and the one to our right stands with his back to us, so they each lean away from Jesus. The man to our left wears a pink cloth tied around his waist but is otherwise nude. His mouth is wide open, and his free hand reaches across his chest. His royal-blue cap is decorated with lavender-purple and gold ribbons and plumes. The man to our right is nude except for a parrot-green cap wrapped with a band of orange, like a turban. The area in which they stand has a floor patterned with butter yellow and white. On the far side of the courtyard, a central arch is flanked by one to each side, which are cut off by the left and right edges of the composition. The entablature running across the top of the arches is parallel to the top edge of the painting. The landscape beyond has grassy, rolling hills dotted with trees, reaching back to hazy blue mountains along the horizon. The sky above deepens from pale blue over the mountains to azure blue across the top, seen through the arches. Several vertical cracks are visible on the surface of the panel.
Bachiacca, The Flagellation of Christ, c. 1512/1515, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.81

The Flagellation of Christ

Bachiacca · c. 1512/1515 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.81

In the left half of this horizonal painting, a winged angel gestures with arms raised over a man and woman being forced away from a bank of clouds set against a flat and barren landscape. The angel, man, and woman all have pale skin. The blond angel is dressed in a flowing white robe with coral-red fabric that hangs over one arm and billows behind. Kneeling in front of the angel, the woman wears a toga that appears to be made from an ivory-colored animal skin. Her long auburn-brown hair falls in waves around her shoulders, and she looks up to the sky, her mouth open. She kneels with her body facing our right, and she grasps the man’s right arm, closer to us. The man wears a chestnut-brown fur garment around his hips and he covers his face with his other hand. His brown curls and the animal skin blow in the wind. Gold and cream-white clouds envelop the angel to our left and give way to the shadowed landscape to our right. A dagger-like spear of light thrusts out of the clouds from above the angel, toward the man and woman. Thistles grow close to us in the foreground and, to our right, a striped serpent lifts its head and flicks out its tongue. A lion attacks two horses beyond the people, and in the sky above, an eagle swoops down on a heron. The navy-blue horizon line in the deep distance could indicate a body of water. Small patches of blue sky appear through breaks in the clouds.
Benjamin West, The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, 1791, oil on canvas, Avalon Fund and Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1989.12.1

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

Benjamin West · 1791 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1989.12.1